Eld Volume 1
by Gray's Wolves
Summary: Dropped into Skyrim probably by some cosmic deity to be the dragonborn, while knowing next to nothing about fighting except for what I've read about, and I'm supposed to defeat Alduin, yeah right. Just one question, why did I have to be turned into a girl?
1. Unbound Arc: Chapter 1

Title: Eld

Summary: Dropped into Skyrim probably by some cosmic deity to be the dragonborn, while knowing next to nothing about fighting except for what I've read about, and I'm supposed to defeat Alduin, yeah right. Just one question, why did I have to be turned into a girl?

Warning: Swearing, violence, war and other m rated warnings.

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Chapter 1

Alea iacta est

The die is cast

\- Gaius Julius Caesar

* * *

Click Clack Click Clack

Did I fall asleep to the sound of the intro?

I felt like my seat was rocking, maybe a screw came lose or one of the cats is trying a balancing act on my gaming chair head rest again. Still waking up I yawn, moving my arms to stretch for a second but for some reason I can't move my hands apart.

That's odd.

Looking down I find the problem or should I say problems. One, my hands are tied together with rope, two, my t-shirt and pjs have been changed out for some kind of ragged clothes and thirdly, there are two lumps protruding from my chest. Que the panic.

My breathing becomes heavy, quickly speeding up, I can feel my chest start to hurt. I look around rapidly trying to find out where I am, one, two, three, four people around me, I'm in a carriage pulled by a horse. There's a forest I can escape into, just have to wait for the right...

"Hey, you," the man across from me sayings, making me jump in my seat. "You're finally awake. You where trying to cross the border right, right? Walked right into that Imperial ambush, same as us, and that thief over there."

No, no, no, this can't be happening, this is just a very vivid dream and soon I'll just wake up from it, like I always do...why am I not waking up? Maybe, I'm ah, hallucinating that's it, maybe some really bad food poisoning or something, and now my brains just mixing up the Skyrim intro with a day dream or something, yeah, that's it.

But what about if this is Skyrim? What am I going to do?

Someone's hand touched my knee, making me jump.

"Whoa, there," the man, no, Ralof said putting his hands in the air. "Come on, can't keep the gods waiting."

I can see that one of the soldiers near the cart is watching with a hand on his sword, almost as if he is going to pull me off the cart.

I shakenly get up from my seat and carefully got down from the cart, the straw sandals that I have on, do nothing to protect my feet from the ground.

"Step towards the block when we call your name," the imperial captain said. "One at a time."

"Empire loves their damn list," Ralof said.

"Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm," Hadvar said.

"It has been an honor, Jarl Ulfric," Ralof said as Ulfric walked away to join the group of people surrounding the chopping...

Fuck

"Ralof of Riverwood," who silently walked to join the others. "Lokir of Rorikstead."

"No, I'm not a rebel! You can't do this!" he said before running off.

"Halt!" the imperial captain commands.

"You're not going to kill me!"

"Archers!" the imperial captain shouts, the archer's arrows impacted Lokir's body, protruding from his back as he fell to the ground. "Anyone else feel like running?"

"Wait, you there," Hadvar said looking in my direction. "Step forward," about three steps and I was in front of him. "Who are you?"

Like hell I'm giving them my name, its far too dangerous if there are other people like me. "Brynhildr Lothbrok,"

"You picked a bad time to come home to Skyrim, kinsman,"

Really, a Nord? I mean sure my mom sometimes gets mistaken for having Scandinavian in her but I'm a Canadian with a mostly Irish, Scottish, bit of english, and a tad bit of Native American background. Maybe it's just because I'm 6'1.

"Captain, what should we do?" Hadvar asks her. "She's not on the list."

She?

"Forget the list," the captain orders. "She goes to the block."

Well fuck you too.

"By your orders, Captain," Hadvar said to her, then turning to me to say. "Follow the captain, prisoner."

I started to follow the captain to join the rest of the group, waiting in the circle around the execution block...Oh God, what am I going to do? What am I going to do? There's no script to magically protect me and there is no infinite restarts if I die.

I can hear Alduin's roar over the sound of general Tulius rant.

Even if I do magically survive this, how can I fight through the soldiers when I barely even know how to fight with any kind of weapons besides swinging it around and it's been years since I last used a bow and arrow on a target. I'm so screwed.

A Stormcloak soldier marched forward to the execution block, ranting about wanting to get this over with and something about ancestors before the axe was brought down on his neck. I could see the blood that spilled from his neck, oh God, its so different seeing it with my own eyes.

Suddenly someone pushed me from behind, causing me to fall to the ground, I could hear the person behind me shout. "The captain said move!"

I could feel tears forming in my eyes. "Please, I haven't done anything wrong," I pleaded with them. "The last thing I remember..."

"Shut up!" the soldier commanded as he approached me with his sword drawn. I tried to scramble back out of his reach but he easily caught up with me and dragged me onto my feet by my oddly long hair. "Come on," he said pushing me towards the block and then shoving me onto it once we got there.

Panic rose in me as the executioner started to raise the axe over his head. "No, no, nononononono..." I chanted.

RRROOOAAARRR!

"Dragon!" someone shouted, though it was quickly drowned amongst the other voices and roars.

The ground shook under the weight of Alduin's violent landing, sending the executioner stumbling to regain his balance but he was finally pushed off his feet by Alduin's shout.

I rolled a couple of times before coming to a stop, fear pushed me to get up.

"Hey, kinsman, get up!" I heard Ralof shout at me. "Come on, the gods won't give us another chance!"

I hesitated for a moment but the roars that Alduin gave pushed me to my feet and run after Ralof into the tower.

"Jarl Ulfric! What is that thing?" Ralof asks him. "Could the legends be true?"

"Legends don't burn down villages," Ulfric says with a surprisingly calm voice considering the situation. "We need to move, now!"

"Up through the tower, let's go," Ralof says as he bolts for the stairs. "Let's go! With me, up the tower!"

The two of us go up the tower but rubble is blocking the way, one of the Stormcloaks is trying to move some of it out of the way.

"We just need to move some of these rocks to clear the way!"

The wall bursts open, pieces of it flying everywhere, I turn my body and cover my head to protect myself as I'm pelted with the debris.

Alduin lets loose a fire shout into the tower, then flies off.

Ralof moved up to the opening that Alduin left in the tower.

"See the inn on the other side?" Ralof said pointing to the building with a hole in it's roof. "Jump through the roof and keep going! Go..."

"Are you kidding me, I'm afraid of heights!" I yelled at him.

"Well its either that or die!" Ralof yelled at me, but I just shook my head. "GO!" I felt a hand push me from behind and I go sailing towards the hole in the roof.

Years of jumping off of walls, boulders, and other high places as a kid made me bend my knees on impact but I was still off balance that I fell to my side. I put out my hands to brace myself but I fell on my left hand the wrong way as I fell pain shoot up my arm.

"Fuck!" I curse gripping my wrist. "ASSHOLE!" I shouted at Ralof but he's already gone.

The fires in the inn spreading around me coupled with the roars that Alduin made, got me back to my feet although not without the pain that came with falling from such a height. I carefully navigated the fires in the inn until I reach a opening on the second floor, this time I carefully get down.

"Hamming, you need to get over here. NOW!" I heard Hadvar yell as I excited the inn. "That a boy your doing great" a little boy rounded the debris just as Alduin landed. "Torolif!" Hadvar shouted in the same direction. "Gods everyone get back," said running for cover as Alduin shouted fire at us, who then promptly flew off, probably to spread more destruction on Helgan. "Still alive, prisoner? Keep close to me if you want to keep it that way."

Yeah, fuck you.

Is what I would want to say to him but, he really is my only chance at not being shot in the back and also navigating Helgan that is so different then in game.

"Gunnar, take care of the boy. I have to find General Tullius and join the defense."

"Gods guide you, Hadvar," the old man called Gunnar said.

I followed Hadvar as Alduin roared over head, with each powerful flap of his wings whipping up the ambers into the air.

"Stay close to the wall!" Hadvar said.

Alduin's landing caused me to stumble and have to use the wall for support.

"Quickly, follow me," Hadvar said, then leading me through the wreckage of a collapsed and burning house. Thus forcing me to have to carefully navigate the ambers and by navigate, I mean jump as I'm practically barefooted., after that then the two of us ran over to General Tullius.

"Hadvar!" Tullius shouted over the battle. "Into the keep, soldier, we're leaving!"

"It's you and me, prisoner. Stay close."

Hadvar leads me to the entrance of what I assume is the keep, my suspicions being conformed by the arrival of Ralof with axe in hand.

"Ralof! You damn traitor, out of my way!" Hadvar shouts at him.

"We're escaping, Hadvar," Ralof tells him. "You're not going to stop us this time."

"Fine," Hadvar spat out. "I hope that dragon takes you all to Sovngarde."

"You!" Ralof shouts at me. "Come on, into the keep."

Fuck it.

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Author notes: I will try to post a new chapter every Monday and I already have a few chapters saved up just encase I get stuck or anything. My other fanfic All Seeing is currently on hiatus as I don't know if I will be continuing the story, I may just release what I had planned for the story and let someone else write it.


	2. Unbound Arc: Chapter 2

Title: Eld

Summary: Dropped into Skyrim probably by some cosmic deity to be the dragonborn, while knowing next to nothing about fighting except for what I've read about, and I'm supposed to defeat Alduin, yeah right. Just one question, why did I have to be turned into a girl?

Warning: Swearing, violence, war and other m rated warnings.

* * *

Chapter 2

In war we must always leave room to fortune, and to accidents which cannot be foreseen.

-Polybius

* * *

"Through here," Ralof said, running towards one of the keep's doors. "Let's go!"

Alduin said something just before the two of us got inside the keep.

Ralof followed behind me but raced ahead and knelled down beside a body laying down on the floor of the keep.

"We'll meet again in Sovngarde, brother" Ralof said. "Looks like we're the only ones who made it, that thing was a dragon, no doubt, just like the children's stories and legends. The harbingers of the End Times,"

RROOAARR

Dust fell from the ceiling as the keep shook.

"We better get moving," Ralof said. "Come here. Let me see if I can get those bindings off."

I held out my hands to them as Ralof pulled out a knife."

"Thank you," I said to him as he cut through the bindings.

"Your welcome," Ralof said then pointed to the body and said. "You may as well take Gunjar's gear, he won't be needing it anymore."

"Um, how do I put on the armour?" I asked.

"You don't know how to put on armour?" Ralof asked in a tone that sounded vaguely similar to those that would often later remark with 'your an idiot' and 'how can someone not how to do X'.

"I've only ever seen people with armour, I've never had to wear any before!" I said quickly before he could add anything else.

"Alright," Ralof sighed, then knelt down beside the corpse. "Watch what I do."

The two of us got to work on the body, Ralof undoing the straps, giving me instructions on how to do so and me helping somewhat by taking off the boots and axe. Then we did the process in reverse, putting the armour on me now, with the hassle of the armour not fitting me very well, the man seems to be much wider then me. The armour in game always automatically fitted someone, once they put in on, but in reality it does not work like so.

I was just getting my boots on when I heard sound of footsteps echoing down the hallway, Ralof gestured to me to hide, and I did so on the other side of the door from where he was. Both of us gripped our axes, to take on the people behind the door.

But am I ready? My palms became sweaty...

The door opened and two imperial soldiers ran out, not even noticing Ralof and I, pressed against the walls. Ralof moved quickly, bring his axe down on the imperial captain, blood sprayed from the gap between the helmet and chest armour. The other soldier turned to face Ralof but then I moved, bring my axe down on the imperial soldier, getting it stuck in him. I let the axe slide out of my hands as the imperial soldier fell to the ground, while I stood there stunned.

I looked at my hands, what have I done?

"Search them for the keys," Ralof said but I payed no attention to him. "Hey," Ralof said stepping up to me, then he grabbed me and shook, saying firmly. "We need to get out of here."

"Yes," I replied to him before shaking my head. "Right, um, keys."

I padded down the two, for keys and anything else I could find on them. I throw Ralof the keys while I took the captain's armour off.

"What are doing, we need to get out of here before more arrive!" Ralof shouted.

"Just a second!" I said putting on the helmet. "Done."

I followed Ralof down the spiraling stairs, where the crashing ceiling greeted us, blocking the path ahead. The two of us went into a side room to go around the mess but two imperial soldiers greeted us inside, the creaking door, alerting them to our presences.

"The prisoners are escaping!," the captain shouted, drawing his sword.

The two imperial soldiers raced at us and Ralof charged ahead, confronting the imperial captain, the two of them duking it out. The soldier maneuvered around them and the pillar, and went to strike at Ralof's back but I moved forward, striking his arm with my axe. He let loose a horrific scream as the axe cut into his flesh, I pulled back and he clenched his arm, still screaming.

I struck at his head, my axe got stuck in his face but I didn't have time to pull it out as it looked like Ralof was struggling against the imperial captain. I pulled out one of the swords I had taken off the other soldiers from earlier and joined Ralof in his battle. Just a simple swipe was enough to distract the imperial captain long enough for Ralof to take care of him.

Both of us sheathed our weapons, and caught our breaths, me more so.

I went about the room, gathering materials we would need for later, I heisted when it came to the food but I remembered that this is not like a game where I can go without eating. At the end I had two healing potions, one mana potion, food and two more swords I had taken from the soldiers.

"Come on, we don't have the time," Ralof said waiting at the door.

"At least put on the chest plate," I said, holding it up. "Look, some of the chains are broken in your armour."

"Fine," Ralof said grabbing the chest plate from me and then slapping it on him. "Alright then, let's go."

Exciting through the other door, the two of us went down a stair case where more fighting was taking place. Lightning was projecting from the hands of a hooded man, striking one person who went into convulsions before collapsing to the ground, charred, and smoking.

The other Stormcloak however was able to make it in time and brought his warhammer down on the hooded man, his head exploding like a water melon hit by a baseball bat. An imperial soldier however ran to avenge his comrade welding a mace and shield. Ralof ran ahead to join his comrade.

Ralof and the Stormcloak soldier pushed the imperial soldier back and out of my sight as I descended the stairs. By the time I got down the stairs, the imperial soldier was already dead, with his head lobbed off.

"Was Ulfric Stormcloak with you?" Ralof asked the soldier.

"No, I haven't seen him since the dragon showed up," the Stormcloak soldier responded.

Ralof walked over to one of the cages, while I shot straight for the backpack the lay on a table. Ah, perfect, I mentally shouted with glee over something to hold all of the crap I had gathered and quickly went about shoving it all in there.

"Wait a second, it looks like there's something in this cage," Ralof said but when he tried to open it. "Ah, its locked, see if you can get it open with some picks, we'll need that gold when we get out."

Ralof was about to hand me the lock picks when I said. "I have a better idea," and then walked over to the guy with the hammer and asked. "Can I borrow that for a second?"

"Sure," he said though he seemed to question my demand but still handed me the war hammer.

"Thank you," I said taking the hammer and then walking over to the cage, then slamming the head against the lock.

BANG!

I tugged on the cage door and it slide open. "Thank you," I said, giving back the hammer. Then I went about ransacking the cage, the gold I shoved into a pouch, and the mage outfit was more easily removed. I saw the tome on the ground and picked it up, curiosity got the better of me and I opened the book.

Wham, I got hit by a rush of knowledge, immediately developing a headache from it. I had two thoughts about this, one, what the hell just happened and two, I know how to make lightning shoot from my hands like Darth Sidious.

"Come on, let's get going," Ralof said.

The three of us moved through the hallway until we arrived at the entrance to a cave, the Ralof make a motion for us halt and whispered. "There's five imperial soldiers in the cave a head of us, two of them are archers."

"I can lead the charge," the Stormcloak soldier said.

"Right," Ralof nodded. "You, can you use a bow?"

"Barely, I shot a few arrows at a target a couple of feet away when I was a child," I said, which is true as with scouts I tried archery a few times at a camp but other then that.

Ralof gave a sigh before saying. "Alright, we're going to have to rush them and use the pillars as cover."

The Stormcloak and I nodded our heads in agreement.

"Alright let's go."

The Stormcloak ran ahead of us, the first imperial soldier he came across was barely able to bring his sword out before the warhammer was brought down upon him.

"The prisoners are escaping!" One the imperials shout.

Ralof and the Stormcloak move towards the archers, ducking behind cover as they go but I can see the imperial soldier in heavy armour move to intercept them. They can't fight well having to deal with the archers, I move out from behind a pillar and call on my mana like the knowledge from the book told me to do. Lightning sprung from my hands, striking the imperial in heavy armour.

"AAAAHHHH!"

The imperial started to scream, the lightning licked the soldier making him spasm, areas where the lightning touched blackened. He continued to spasm until my mana ran low and I was forced to let go of the spell. The imperial collapsed to the ground, smoke bellowed from the body, I stood there looking at the body and then at hands.

What have I done?

CLANK

"Shit," I cursed stirring from my trance, I quickly hiding behind the pillar again, thank God I put on that extra armour or that arrow would have skewered me. I tried to catch a glimpse of what was going on but an arrow bounced off the side of the pillar I was hiding behind and I stayed behind it.

The sounds of struggle echoed in the cave, I peeked again and this time I saw Ralof and the Stormcloak soldier attacking the archers. The fight was over in a few seconds.

I scavenged the remains of the heavy and light armour soldier before moving over to where Ralof and the Stormcloak soldier are conversing.

I was only able to here the tail end of the conversation, with the soldier saying. "...wait, here for Ulfric Stormcloak."

"Alright, best of luck to you," Ralof said to the soldier then turned to me. "Let's get going," he said then turned to go across a small wooden bridge but once I crossed it the bridge collapsed because of the shaking caused by Alduin.

Ralof and I continued on, looking for a way out of the cave now that our only known exit is blocked by rubble. A couple of twits and turns later, Ralof suddenly stopped and made a motion for me to do the same.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Spiders," he stated.

For a second I wanted to laugh but then I remembered the giant spiders in Skyrim, and it was around this point that there was a cavern filled with them.

"I think my mana has recovered enough for a few more sparks spells," I said to Ralof.

"Okay, I'll hit them from a distance and you hit them if they get close," Ralof said, taking the bow out that he had taken from one of the archers.

I nodded in agreement and readied myself. Ralof notched the arrow and pulled back on the bow, made a few adjustments then let loose. A second later, one of the spiders dropped, another arrow and another spider, they seemed to figure out where the arrows are coming from and headed in our direction.

Ralof was able to kill the last of the little ones before the larger spiders reached us, I moved up and showered them in lightning. They didn't blacken as much as the soldier, and they fell down faster.

"I hate spiders," Ralof said. "It's all the eyes, you know,"

"I hate the idea of them crawling over me," I said with a shiver.

Ralof and I moved through the remains, keeping our weapons out and eyeing the corpses, I frankly didn't trust them enough to stay dead. We moved on to another cave, this one with a small steam running through it, and a natural rock bridge

I was just about to rumage a cart I found when Ralof genitally tapped me on the shoulder, held a finger to his lips and pointed at a rock...Oh, shit the bear.

Carefully I lifted a coin purse and tucked it underneath my armour to prevent the coins from jiggling around.

I then followed Ralof around the bear, trying my best to keep q...

CRACK CRACK

Stupid cracking ankles!

The bear stirred, and poked it's head up.

Ralof cursed and ready his bow.

The bear stood up on its hind legs and roared, Jesus Christ that bear is huge. I freeze up at the intimidating sight, but Ralof doesn't and he let's loose an arrow that hits the bear in the neck. The bear drops down but now moves towards us as Ralof notches an arrow.

Calling on my mana, the lightning shoots from my hands, striking the bear and it immediately roared as it tried to shake off the lightning but soon it could handle it any longer, collapsing to the ground with a thud. The fur had become charred in some areas and even seemed to be on fire in others.

I hope its dead, I depleted my mana for that.

"Should we skin it and take the fur to sell?" I asked Ralof.

"The fur is useless now, no one would want to buy it," Ralof said, "Let's go, I can feel the wind so we must be close to the exit."

In the game you could get animal skin even from one that had been torched by master level flame spells but this is real now, not some game mechanic.

"Okay."

Just around the bend and I could already see the light at the end of the cave, I guess in this case I will walk towards the light.

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Author notes: Sorry this was late and don't forget to leave a comment.


	3. Before the Storm Arc: Chapter 3

Title: Eld

Summary: Dropped into Skyrim probably by some cosmic deity to be the dragonborn, while knowing next to nothing about fighting except for what I've read about, and I'm supposed to defeat Alduin, yeah right. Just one question, why did I have to be turned into a girl?

Warning: Swearing, violence, war and other m rated warnings.

* * *

Chapter 3

So ends the bloody business of the day.

-Homer

* * *

"Ahh, fresh air," I said once we got out of the cave.

RRROOAAARRR

"Quick, get down," Ralof said as he hid behind a boulder.

I slumped against it, just trying to catch a moment's rest. "Is..is he gone?"

"Looks like he's gone for good this time," Ralof said, then he offered a hand as he said. "No way to know if anyone else made it out alive, but this place is going to be swarming with imperials soon enough. We better clear out of here."

Ralof started to walk down a path, of course not wanting to be alone and worried about how things have changed for the distance it takes to get to Riverwood, I followed him.

"My sister, Gerdur, runs the mill in Riverwood just up the road, I'm sure she'd help you out."

"Thank you, for everything back there," I said to Ralof as I slightly trailed behind him on the path.

"Ah, well I couldn't just leave a fellow kinsman to those imperials," Ralof said, again with the whole 'kinsman' stuff.

After that there was a couple of more minutes of silence as we walked down the path. In the game I would be already passing the mine, if I was walking at this pace but right now, we haven't even reached the fork in the road.

"Ah, Ralof?"

"Yes?"

"How long until we reach Riverwood?"

"A few hours I would think, its about three leagues from Helgan to Riverwood."

Two leagues, that's over 15km, sure I can hike it, I've done that kind of thing before with scouts and school events but not after everything that happened in Helgan. That's not even counting all the stuff I'm wearing and carrying.

"Um, is there maybe some place we can stop on the way to rest?" I asked.

"Not that I know of, Embershard mine has been abandon since the civil war started," Ralof said. "Besides, the longer we take, the more imperials there will be on the roads looking for escaped prisoners."

Damn it, things just keep on getting worse, don't they?

To add on to that, every step I take seems to leave me more drained then I was before, I can start to feel things that I had ignored while trying to escape with my life from Helgan. My feet hurt from running virtually bare foot through Helgan until I got the boots in the keep, and my left hand is still sore, it doesn't feel broken but it definitely feels bruised at the very least. My chest and back are sore too, God, everything is just adding up to make this a shit day.

Little bits of conversation here and there between Ralof and I happened but most of the time I just tried to speak as little as possible to save my breath.

When we arrived at the standing stones, I was already exhausted and my feet felt like I had been stocking shelves for a 8 hour shift at a retail store.

At one point Ralof stopped and talked about Bleakfalls Barrow, I had never seen a mountain with my own eyes before...wait that means. Turning my head to the right, I could see the looming Throat of the World.

"Wow," I said, just staring at it.

"Never seen the Throat of the world before?"

"Never seen a mountain before, especially one so big," I said, when I gave a small look in his direction, it looked like he gave me a confused look. Maybe I should be more careful with what I say.

After the small conversation, the two of us continued on for a little while more.

Suddenly Ralof stopped and I looked up.

The guardian stones.

"These are the guardian stones, three of the thirteen ancient standing stones that dot Skyrim's landscape," Ralof said. "Go ahead, see for yourself."

For a few seconds I stood there wondering if it was worth trying, this may not work like in the game, but if it does...

Approaching the one that I decided would be best for my future here, I put my hand against it and suddenly it began to glow before shooting up into the sky.

That was awesome.

"Mage, eh?" Ralof said, pulling my attention away from the glowing stone. "Well to each their own, it's not for me to judge."

I didn't _feel_ any different but maybe I will notice it in some form or another.

Ralof and I continued on, eventually passing the path that leads to the Embershard Mine, but now I'm on my last ounce of strength. My legs buckled causing my knees to slam into the ground, leaving me thankful for the armour I'm wearing.

"Hey, are you okay?" I can feel someone grab a hold of my arm, keeping me from falling on my face, all I can do is shake my head. "Alright, there's a clearing over here that we can stop at for a..." my stomach growled. "And have something to eat I guess," Ralof said with a chuckle.

Ralof set me down against a tree and then went about collecting some wood for a fire, while I clumsily tried to peel off my armour in my exhausted state for some relief.

I pulled off my bracers, sat for a little while, then got off my helmet, oddly I felt long hair, maybe left over from the captain although I really hope not. Next is the metal cuirass, when I took it off however, I found that my chest is oddly bulging.

"Ow.…damn it," I cursed after trying to pat it down, my chest hurt like a bitch for doing that. "What the fuck?" I said, one for what I felt and two for my voice, now noticing that my voice has been very odd. Once again I could feel the panic rise in me.

The chain mail is a bitch to take off as not only is it heavy but its like a shirt so I can't just unbuckle the straps and let the armour fall away from me. Once off, my nightmare revealed its self in the shape of two lumps on my chest, pulling on the neck line of the burlap like sack I'm wearing confirmed it, I felt down there too.

Shit, I'm a girl.

Yeah, that confirms things...I've gone insane.

I'm back at home, still a young man but I'm just having an episode of some kind. Soon enough, I'll be whisked away to a hospital where I'll be pumped full of drugs and be brought back to reality. Yeah, that's it, right?

Suddenly I feel something come down on my shoulder, making nearly jump a foot off the ground.

"Wow, there," Ralof says. "You weren't responding, just staring there, didn't mean to scare you."

I just looked at him, not sure what to say to an illusion of my mind. He seem to stare at me for a time too.

"Ah, was that your first kill back there?" Ralof said, I could only nod my head in agreement. "Remember it was you or them."

That really isn't the reason I'm freaking out but thanks anyway.

"Alright, I'll get this fire going, while you pluck and prepare the pheasant you took earlier," Ralof said.

"Um, one problem," I said.

"What?"

"Ah, how?"

Now it was Ralof's turn to look stunned.

"Didn't you help out you're mother, preparing meals."

"Yeah, but we never got food this raw, usually the butcher got to it first!" I argued in my defense, though my dad could probably do this, he's butchered cows and such before, consider the kind of chef he is.

Ralof sighed, then said. "Alright, can you at least build and light a fire?" he made it sound like he's talking to a child.

"Of course I can," I huffed, over eight years of being in Scouts Canada groups and years of camping with my family, made it easy to do so.

"Good, you do that, I'll prepare the pheasant."

So I went about preparing a cabin fire, setting the twigs and little sticks up with a bit of birch bark and dry grass in the center. After that came the tricky part, lighting it, deprived of many of the modern methods of starting a fire and with limited resources, means that I have to resort to the oldest method in the book, friction. I must have spent a good half hour trying to get that fire going, multiple times it smoked but never got anywhere. Then another half just getting it to a decent size.

"Done," I said triumphantly.

"Good, now we can get some grub into our bellies," Ralof said.

Looking at that thing, cook made my stomach ache just at the thought of eating it. I'm starving and I don't really give a damn.

"Here's you're portion," Ralof said, handing me half of the thing on a stick.

After getting a few bits out of it, I said. "I've never had pheasant before."

"Really?"

"Not many people have them where I'm from," I've stopped caring if I let things slip about where I'm from, after all this is just a illusion of mine.

"What about the local lords?" Ralof asked.

"Maybe some of the rich people but it's just not that popular right now,"

"Aye, I can see that, not many can afford much in trying times like these," Ralof said, I guess he's talk about issues relating to the ongoing civil war.

"I suppose not."

Once we finish our meal, we buried the scraps far from our fire so that we don't attract any animals to us.

"We can't continue now, it will be dark in a hour or two and I wouldn't want to be caught in the dark out in these parts," Ralof said to me. "We'll have to set up camp for the night."

This will probably be the first time I've had to sleep outside without a tent or lean-to of some kind, just me and the sky above me.

We gathered more wood to keep the fire going throughout the night and then did our best to make ourselves comfortable for the night. Though any worry about left my mind once I snuggled in for the night, falling asleep in a second.

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Author's note: Alright, so I've decided to switch to posting every two weeks on Monday. Also I added to chapter 2 last week (Before posting this chapter) so it has an extra 500 words to it now.

Please don't forget to leave a comment.


	4. Before the Storm Arc: Chapter 4

Title: Eld

Summary: Dropped into Skyrim probably by some cosmic deity to be the dragonborn, while knowing next to nothing about fighting except for what I've read about, and I'm supposed to defeat Alduin, yeah right. Just one question, why did I have to be turned into a girl?

Warning: Swearing, violence, war and other m rated warnings.

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Chapter 4

What can a soldier do who charges when out of breath?

-Vegetius

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Birds? Damn did I leave the window open last night?

"Ugh," the light burned my eyes, apparently I left the curtains open too. Suddenly I left that oh so familiar pain in my stomach and burn at the back of my throat. "*Throwing up sounds*"

Damn it, did I forget to take my medicine last night, fucking withdraws.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Is that dad?

Fuck my head hurts like I haven't drunk enough water too, God, what did I do last night?

"Glass of water, please," I begged, reaching out for one.

"Well there ain't no glass of water but there is a river over there," the person who does not sound like my dad.

I quickly turn over, something heavy on my chest moves. Ah, I think upon seeing who was speaking to me, the illusion has not ended.

"So the illusions are still happening?" I said out loud.

"What illusions,"

"This," I said mentioning to everything around me. "Is all an illusion, soon I'll wake up in a hospital or some kind of mental facility pumped full of drugs, and at least some what sane."

"Look, what happened at Helgan is very real, I know this might be hard for you to accept..."

"OF COURSE IT...Ow," trying to yell only made my head scream in pain. "How can I accept something as outlandish as this, where I come from this is all just some story,"

"What are you talking about?"

"Elder Scrolls V Skyrim, duh," I said. "Its a game that's basically a interactive story, so obviously I'm so crazy that my imagination is using the game as part of these illusions, just with tad bit of reality mixed into it."

"You're insane,"

"So says the illusion!" I shoot back. "I mean, come on, I'm a guy so why would I have a woman's body, never mind that I was in the cart that the dragonborn is supposed to be in,"- I rubbed my chin in a thoughtful manner.- "Maybe he or she was in another cart."

"The dragonborn…"

"Yeah, yeah, that thing, the person who can absorb a dragon's soul and learn shouts through either the greybeards or word walls," I explained. "Though I can't be that person, I don't know how to use a sword, I barely know how to use a bow and this magic thing is pure luck."

"What, you're..."

"I want to be back home, perfectly normal, playing video games, watching anime, having dinner with my family, going camping, stuff like that," I let out a sigh. "Now I'm insane so, I'm probably in some mental institution and I'm either blabbering to some imaginary person or a nurse that I think is Ralof from Skyrim."

SLAP

My hand touched the check that Ralof slapped.

"Look, I know that you're upset about what happened in Helgan but you need to get yourself together, surviving is the most important thing right now," Ralof said, I nodded my head dimly. "Alright, good, now try to get better, we're leaving in an hour."

I ended up vomiting soon after that conversation, and my thirst for water ended up making drinking some water from the river, I hope I'm okay down the road. Also I cut up that old sack I was wearing and used it to make a makeshift bra so that those melons didn't move around too much.

"You ready?" Ralof asked, I nodded my head slowly not wanting to saying anything less I barf because of it. "Good, let's get going then."

My feet and legs are still sore from yesterday but I don't want to be left behind.

Walking is slow, I'm hurting and sick, the worst combination in the world and the only thing keeping me going is being left behind. I end up throwing up several times on the walk.

Suddenly I start to fall forwards, I don't have the strength to do anything to stop it, I'm going to hit the ground…

"Wow there," Ralof said, catching me just in time. "I guess it was too much to ask of you, come on, I spotted a hunter's camp just over there."

We shuffle over to the camp, where once again, I'm leaned against a tree.

From where I lay, I can see that a proper camp fire had been built with stones around it to block out the wind, and a pot lay to the side, abandon by whoever was here before. Also a sleeping bag made of skins lay near it, with it a mug on the ground. This looks too abandon, like someone left in a hurry.

Ralof went about gathering some wood for a fire, while I generally just laid about trying my best not to throw up.

"Hey, let's get you warm," Ralof said helping me up and moving me over to lay down on the sleeping beg next to the fire, he put a hand to my forehead. "You're forehead isn't warm…"

"It's withdrawals," I told him.

"Skooma?"

"No, its a medication I take, I haven't been off it in awhile so it's pretty bad."

"Alright, just lay back, and I'll handle everything okay," Ralof said, I gave a nod. "Good, I'll be back."

I watched the fire dance on the sticks and logs, slowly burning everything to embers.

"Here," Ralof said, I looked back to see he had the mug in his hand. "It's water, drink."

"Thank you," I said before gulping it down.

"There's more in the pot," he said before leaving to go do more.

I ended up dozing off, still too tired from my ordeal the day before and throwing up all day.

"Hey."

"Mmmm."

"Hey, you need to get something in you."

"Hm?" I rubbed my eyes and looked around. God how long have I been asleep for, the sun is starting to set already. "Thank you," I said taking the pheasant that I had picked up yesterday. "This is good."

"First time having pheasant?"

"Yeah, same thing with the rabbit yesterday too."

"Yeah, I rarely have them, mostly it's the nobles and rich merchants that it them."

"Well, where I come from pheasants aren't as popular and not many kids want to have roger rabbit for dinner."

"Roger rabbit?"

"Story character."

"Ah."

Everything went quiet again, as the two of us just tried to enjoy our meal.

After dinner, I couldn't hold it in anymore, and ended up having to do my business far from the camp in some bushes. First time doing that without toilet paper but I made sure to collect non poison ivy leaves before I went.

Day turned to night, and this time I payed attention to the starry night sky..

"Wow," I said in amazement over it.

"What is it?" Ralof asked, looking over at me.

"It's just the first time I've seen the night sky like this," I told him.

"Why's that?"

"Where I'm from there is so much light projected from buildings and street lamps that it makes it hard to see the night sky, your often lucky if you can see a few stars if your in the city."

"Ah, city folk, that explains things," Ralof said with a smile on his face.

"I often go on trips into the wilderness, I'm not completely useless in the countryside."

"Ah, just teasing you," he said.

"Ah, I know."

I ended up having the first watch, as I couldn't sleep after the nap I had.

The next day the walk to Riverwood was silent, I had recovered from my withdrawals enough that I wasn't too bad but oddly enough I could still function as if I was still on it as I wasn't thinking a mile a second like I am when I'm off it. Maybe some magic thing with the gender change did something to my mind that changed the chemicals that cause my ADHD but I'm no scientist so for now, I'll just leave that as something to be thankful about in this horrible situation.

Lucky there where no wolves that jumped out to attack us, but maybe the smell of burning corpses in Helgan drew them away from the path.

Later on I can just see the roofs of homes and a wooden fence from a distance when Ralof pulls me off to the side.

"Alright, there are some imperials there," Ralof said to me. "I can bet you their looking for escaped prisoners."

"What are we going to do?" I asked Ralof.

"We need to talk to my sister," Ralof said. "So we are going to have to disguise our selves."

I nod along with his words, things have probably changed in this strange dream. "I could use the mage outfit and you take the hood."

"Good idea, but the problem is how are we going to explain the equipment."

"Traveling merchants, stopping in for the inn on their way to Whiterun to sell their merchandise?"

"That may work but not many have been going so close to the border of the conflict since the civil war started between us and the imperials."

"What other option do we have?"

"Aye, I guess your right," Ralof said. "You go change over there, I'll go change there."

I took off the armour and put it into the backpack I had, it made it weigh like a ton. Then I slipped on the mage's robe, taking off the hood and overcoat, gave a bit more cleavage then I liked but it would have to do for the time being.

"All done?" Ralof called out.

"Just about," I said, just straightening out my outfit. "Okay ready."

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Author's note: I hoped everyone liked the new chapter, and don't forget to leave a comment about the story.


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